File Shredding And Wipe Disk

There are significant and important differences between deleting a file, File Shredding or File Wiping and Disk Wiping. Using the delete key does not completely obliterate information. The information remains on the disk, often more or less completely intact. The function of the delete key is to remove the address to that file so that it no longer appears in any readily accessible directory or index. In practical terms what that means is that a portion of the disc, the segment upon which that file resided, is made available so that other data can be written in the same space. While it’s true that, eventually, after the same area of the disc has been written over three or four times the original data will no longer be accessible, it is never really completely obliterated simply because the delete key is used.

File Shredding, or Wipe Disk is another matter altogether. When wiping a file in this manner it is more like shredding a piece of paper in a shredder. Even though there are still letters on the scraps of paper and, theoretically they could be reconstructed, they are functionally indecipherable. Putting the scraps of paper back together is a virtually...